Continuing Medical Education (CME) Explained

With the ever changing medical environment, it is important for medical providers to continue to keep updating their practices and hold themselves accountable to provide excellent medical services to their patients. One way the medical field encourages providers to do this is by completing Continuing Medical Education (CME) credits.

What are Continuing Medical Education Credits (CME)?

The National Institutes of Health defines CME credits as “educational activities which serve to maintain, develop, or increase the knowledge, skills, and professional performance and relationships that a physician uses to provide services for patients, the public, or the profession.”

In addition to the educational benefits, CME credits are required to maintain medical licenses, medical staff privileges, medical specialty society memberships, medical specialty board certifications, and more. CME’s are developed and delivered through professional organizations, medical education agencies, hospitals, educational institutions, and state medical societies.

CMEs are regulated by the American Medical Association, the American Osteopathic Association and the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education. It is important to make sure the CME provider is accredited with one of these organizations in order to guarantee the credits are applicable to medical licensing and medical staff credentialing. Many organizations have created trademarked phrases or seals in order to verify that the credits earned are accredited and viable. Lists of accredited providers can be found on accreditation and state medical boards’ websites. I have included some links at the end of this post to serve as a resource.

What Counts as a CME Credit?

According to the AMA, the following CME activities are acceptable for credit:

• Live Activities: National, regional, or local conferences, workshops, seminars, regularly scheduled conferences, journal clubs, simulation workshops, structured learning activities presented during a committee meeting, and live internet webinars.
• Enduring Materials: CME activities that endure over a specified time such as print, audio, video, and internet materials, such as monographs, podcasts, CD-ROMs, DVDs, archived webinars, as well as other web-based activities.
• Journal-Based CME: An article written within a peer-reviewed, professional journal.
• Test item writing: Physicians learn through their contribution to the development of high-stakes examinations, or certain peer-reviewed, self-assessment activities, by researching, drafting and defending potential questions for examinations given by the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) or a member board of the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS), or for peer reviewed, published, self-assessment educational activities from a national medical specialty society. This must be a robust process which includes participation in a group peer review.
• Manuscript Review: The critical review of an assigned journal manuscript. The review must be of an original contribution for publication in a medical journal indexed by MEDLINE which requires multiple reviewers.
• Performance Improvement CME: An accredited CME provider structures a long-term three-stage process by which a physician or group of physicians learn about specific performance measures, assess their practice using the selected performance measures, implement interventions to improve performance related to these measures over a useful interval of time, and then reassess their practice using the same performance measures. A PI CME activity may address any facet (structure, process or outcome) of a physician’s practice with direct implications for patient care.
• Internet point of care learning: A self-directed, online learning on topics relevant to their clinical practice. Learning for this activity includes a reflective process in which a physician must document their clinical question, the sources consulted and the application to practice.
• Successful participation in a residency or fellowship: A resident/fellow can receive a standard one, two, or three-year AMA Physician’s Recognition Award (PRA) and/or a resident/fellow can claim 20 credits via the AMA per year for participating in an ACGME accredited residency and/or fellowship program.
• Certification/Maintenance of certifications with an ABMS specialty board: A physician can receive a standard three-year AMA Physician’s Recognition Award (PRA) for completing an ABMS member board certification process, and/or a physician can claim 60 AMA credits for successfully completing an ABMS board certification process

Some activities that are not acceptable for credit are:

• Clinical Experience
• Charity or mission work
• Mentoring
• Surveying
• Serving on a committee, council, task force, board, etc.
• Passing examinations that are not integrated with a certified activity

CME Requirements by State

Here are the CME requirements for each state, as of 2022.

Alabama – 25/year – Yes

Alaska – 25/year – Yes

Arizona (see page 6) – 40/2 years – Yes

Arkansas – 20/year – Yes

California – 50/2 years – Yes

Colorado has no CME requirements for physicians.

Connecticut – 50/2 years – Yes

Delaware (see section 12.0) – 40/2 years – Yes

District of Columbia – 50/2 years – Yes

Florida – 40/2 years – Yes

Georgia (see number 17) – 40/2 years – No

Hawaii – 40/2 years – No

Idaho – 40/2 years – No

Illinois – 150/3 years – No

Indiana – 2/2 years – Yes

Iowa – 40/2 years – Yes

Kansas – 50/year – No

Kentucky – 60/3 years – Yes

Louisiana – 20/year – Yes

Maine – 100/2 years – Yes

Maryland – 50/2 years – Yes

Massachusetts – 50/2 years – Yes

Michigan – 150/3 years – Yes

Minnesota – 75/3 year – No

Mississippi (see page 25/138) – 40/2 years – Yes

Missouri (see page 13/26) – 50/2 years – Yes

Montana has no CME requirements for physicians.

Nebraska – 50/2 years – No

Nevada – 40/2 years – Yes

New Hampshire – 100/2 years – Yes

New Jersey – 100/2 years – Yes

New Mexico – 75/3 years – No

New York has no CME requirement, but physicians must attend mandated training on infection control every four years.

North Carolina – 60/3 years – Yes

North Dakota – 60/3 years – No

Ohio – 100/2 years – Yes

Oklahoma – 60/3 years – No

Oregon – 60/2 years – Yes

Pennsylvania – 100/2 years – Yes

Rhode Island – 40/2 years – Yes

South Carolina – 40/2 years – Yes

South Dakota has no CME requirements for physicians

Tennessee – 40/2 years – Yes

Texas – 48/2 years – Yes

Utah – 40/2 years – Yes

Vermont – 30/2 years – Yes

Virginia – 60/2 years – Yes

Washington – 200/4 years – Yes

West Virginia – 50/2 years – Yes

Wisconsin – 30/2 years – No

Wyoming – 60/3 years – No

Looking to get your CME? Check out 6 options to earn your CME from your phone.